Matthew Weiner has lined up his next post–Mad Men gig. The Emmy-winning writer’s debut novel, Heather, the Totality, has been acquired by Little, Brown and Company with a planned release date of fall 2017. Described as “a dark fable set in contemporary Manhattan,” the book will track the lives of three individuals whose worlds collide in pursuit of a child.
Weiner helmed the period drama Mad Men for each of its seven seasons, receiving writing credit on a majority of the series’ episodes and winning seven Emmys. Near the end of its run, he wrote and directed his first film, Are You Here, which was hit with negative reviews upon its release and performed poorly at the box office; more recently, he directed the penultimate episode of Season 4 of Orange Is the New Black. Heather, the Totality will mark Weiner’s first major effort since Mad Men ended its run in 2015.
“As someone to whom literature has always been essential, the only thing better than the experience of writing Heather, the Totality is having it published by Little, Brown and Company,” Weiner said in a statement. “I can’t imagine a more exciting way to begin this part of my writing life.” He also told the New York Times that the idea came to him while overhearing a conversation in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, saying, “You don’t know if an idea is going to be a TV show or a movie or a play or prose or a poem … It was a little story where I was like, I wonder what that is, maybe I’ll use it some time.”
